Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Curiouser & Curiouser! Alice is Here!

Here’s my little Alice! She finds herself in wonderland...
Poor dear, she seems to have drunk from the bottle marked, “Drink Me,”

and it has caused her to shrink down to a tiny size!

How curious!


No, I didn’t employ any tricks in photographing her, she really is that size!


She’s tiny, but she looks ever so sweet in her blue dress and apron!


Here’s my original drawing of her:




Early progress:


For her dress I alternated knit and purl stitches.






Her apron is all loom knitted in one piece.



When it came to her headband, she isn’t wearing one in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She is wearing a ribbon in her hair in Through the Looking Glass. But instead of a ribbon I decided to braid a headband for her instead. At first I thought a dark blue yarn might work, as I’ve seen her with a dark headband many times before. But something about it didn’t look quite right to me.



Next I tried weaving a string of pearls into the braiding and changing her name to Elegant Alice. But that didn’t exactly suit her either.



Finally I decided I would braid together two strands of white and one strand of blue yarn, the same as I had used for her outfit. This looked best, so I braided two and then sewed them together with a little white thread.



To me, John Tenniel’s illustrations for Alice will always be the definitive image I have of her, since that is the version I grew up reading and loving. However, did you know that you can see what Lewis Carroll’s original illustrations for Alice looked like? Take a look! Go to http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html and scroll down, click on “The Original Alice” at the bottom center of the page. Be sure to leaf through the entire book, which is written in his own handwriting; at the end there is a photo of a little girl, presumably the real Alice Liddell. If you plan to do research on Alice Liddell, you will find that Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym for the author’s real name, Charles Dodgson. Just a little Alice trivia I thought you might enjoy!

4 comments:

  1. Sorry it took me so long to visit. Your Alice is a wonder! Just a perfect little dress, and I love all your hair pieces. I'm off to find my little Madame Alexander Alice and put her on display. She is calling to me.
    Keep up the incredible designs, and thank you for sharing them with us.

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